Did You Know...

Emails surrounding Solyndra loan continue to show that the White House was involved in moving forward with the loan restructure even after many red flags were raised. Even though it was not their program “per se,” one big proponent per se was then White House Chief of Staff and current Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel:

Here are a few examples of Rahm’s role from the report, which is available in its entirety here.

+ From a White House staffer to an Obama scheduler: “Ron [Klain, VP Joe Biden’s former chief of staff] said this morning that the POTUS definitely wants to do this (or Rahm definitely wants the POTUS to do this?).”

+ From the Director for Special Projects in the office of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel: “POTUS involvement was Rahm’s idea.”

+ From Ron Klain: “Rahm was super hot for this” because “[j]obs and high tech and Recovery Act is a winning combination.”

+ From Heather Zichal, a top deputy to White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy Director Carol Browner (Zichal reportedly had concerns about the Solyndra event): “‘folks in the financing community’ had also raised concerns about the Solyndra loan guarantee, ‘[but] if Rahm wants it, we’ll make it happen.’”

Biden’s office was excited about Solyndra to the point of having to think about baseball while licking saltpeter lollypops to avoid potentially embarrassing reactions, and Emanuel was clearly big on it as well.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, former White House chief of staff for President Obama, referred media questions about his role in supporting the Solyndra loan guarantee to the attorneys in the White House.

“It’s simple, you just talk to the White House counsel,” Emanuel told 89 WLS, a Chicago radio show. “They are answering all the questions and they will answer any questions you have on the matter.”

“Stop bugging me about hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars that disappeared under my nose… I got a chicken restaurant to shut down!”